First day of school

Oh the joys of first day of school pictures! For some reason I was always a weird child and would pose with my hands on my hips or with one arm in the air doing spirit fingers. Holding a prop (like my mothers basket of flowers from the front porch)was also a favorite of mine. Apparently I needed to add some glamor to my pictures, the new school clothes just didn't cut it!

If only I could have had something a little like this with my sisters! Thankfully we had a mother who loved us.


Today was my very last first day of school and I'm so excited. I think it's going to be really weird next fall when I don't have to go. School is all I know!
I didn't know if I was going to be able to graduate by next spring or not, but after talking to my advisor today, I will be walking in May! My advisor also told me that it's against the Comd departments policy to take online classes if you are registered for classes on campus (oops, broke that rule this summer). That led to me having to drop an online class today, which led to me have the dumbest semester ever! It will blow my mind if I don't get a 4.0. All of my classes are basically electives (spinning, guitar, managing work and family, etc..) so it will probably be the easiest yet most boring semester of my life. Oh well. I should be grateful that I'm not going to have to study my brains out, but I like me a little bit of a challenge. We'll see how the semester goes!

Perfect

You know when days are absolutely perfect and you kind of get a high from everything going so well? Today was one of those days! I decided yesterday that I am going to quit being a time waster and try to start doing productive things that help others and make me feel good! Today I tried really hard to stay away from hulu and facebook and I have dinner ready for tonight, laundry is done, and my apartment is very clean as a result. It makes me so happy when all of that is done and I can just sit and chill with my ridiculously attractive husband when I get home from work.

I'm a Stallion!

So as you might know, I'm training for a 1/2 marathon that I'm going to run with my sister Chelsie in Soda Springs in October. I started training for the Top of Utah Half Marathon back in May, but things kept coming up like vacations, school, studying for tests, no motivation (which came all too often) and that made it hard to make time to run. SO Chelsie found one in October that I can run with her and I'm stoked for it.

Being stoked for running is a MIRACLE because you know what? Running is hard! I used to think running a mile was the HARDEST thing in the world! Every fall in grade school when the Presidential Fitness Mile came up, I could just picture myself gasping for air in my stirrup stretch pants and my ginormous pink bifocals, laying on the side of the track... left for dead. Was I a dramatic child? Maybe a little.

Once I hit high school my best friend Suzanne (who was on the cross country team) convinced me I could totally run as far as I wanted and that it was possible. She would run with me and teach me techniques for breathing and it helped me to feel more comfortable with running. I never thought it was fun. I never thought it felt good, but now that I'm a wanna-be runner, I feel like those little bits of advice from 3-4 years ago help me a lot now.

I've been reading a lot of books and blogs about running lately that have seriously made me a lot more motivated to run and they've been SO inspiring to me. People are SO amazing! They prove that anyone can do hard things. They just have to be willing to do them! Once I start reading something it makes me want to pull my hair up and throw on some running shoes (but usually I just stay sitting at my table eating my life cereal and I am content).

In a lot of the articles or books I've been reading, a lot of runners talk about their "mantra", aka, what their running motto is. This morning as I was running with my sister Andrea, I was thinking about my mantra and decided it could be what I always tell myself when I start to feel tired. That being, "You're a Stallion!" This helps me to get going when I start slowing down. I decided this would be my mantra when Andrea left me in the dirt in the last leg of our run... because I wanted to walk for a minute. Then I quickly walked past this older woman walking her dog who looked at me like 'you do know she is beating you right?' Then I saw the USU cross country team running toward me in all of their glory (seriously, they looked amazing!) and I thought, 'what are you doing woman?!! These people are probably running 100 miles today and you can't run another couple of blocks? You are a stallion! Come on!' That is when I decided to kick it into gear and to sprint to the end. I did feel like a stallion and I decided it totally worked for me to say that. I caught up to Andrea and we walked up that nasty hill on 6th East out of the island. Then Andrea wanted to be a show off and ran the rest of the way to her house (a few more blocks) so I ran a block with her and walked one more to my apartment. She is the true stallion. I just have ambitions to be one. I'm so glad she lets me run with her! She makes me such a better runner and it's so great to have someone pacing me every step of the way and encouraging me. She is the BEST!

I can honestly say I'm starting to enjoy running and it truly is a miracle. It is the perfect way to start a day!

HEAVEN!

Last month Mike and I were able to take a break from everything and spend a whole week in heaven with my family, that heaven being Lake Powell. It was SO fun and a much needed break from school and work. I spent my week reading, swimming, skiing, and doing absolutely nothing. It was FANTASTIC!

Mike and my brother-in-law Chad had both never been wakeboarding before, so they were both determined to learn how to wakeboard together. They were both up the first day there and by the end of the week, and after burning a lot of gas in the boat, they were grinding the wake, and attempting to jump over it. Mike took a lot of hits and had the wind knocked out of him a hundred times, but he had a blast and I'm so glad.

Mike is doing his famous trick in this picture where he touches the water, lets go of the rope, and hurries to grab the rope just in the nick of time... ok not really, but I love this picture. Can you say face plant?



Aren't we lovely... I have no idea what our bodies are doing.
Mike had to give me a pep talk (more like yell at me, but in a nice way?) before jumping which really helped since I am NOT a fan of heights. I also found that if you yell and scream right before you push off it really helps. :)





How cool of a dad is he? Colter, my 15 year old nephew, convinced my brother Justin to shave in some chops for the week and what did he do?



Where our houseboat was parked. We had shade almost all day which was so nice!


View from the houseboat


The Family


I'm so happy that we were able to go! Mike loved it and still likes my family so that's a bonus!